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Christopher Barrett Candito (March 21, 1972 – April 28, 2005) was an American Professional Wrestler from Spring Lake, New Jersey under the name Chris Candido. He started his career as a teenager, training under his grandfather Chuck "Popeye" Richards, working for "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe's World Wrestling Association in New Jersey, It was during this time that he met and fell in love with Tammy Lynn Sytch, who would be both his onscreen valet/manager and Real Life girlfriend and later wife. Candido first got noticed while wrestling in NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling as a member of the Tag Team the Suicide Blondes, who would have two runs with the NWA ECW Tag Team Titles until Candido left the promotion. He then turned up in Jim Cornette's SMW, which is where Sytch, under the name "Tammy Fytch", made her television debut. Candido would go on to hold every title in SMW and also won the NWA World Heavyweight Title that was vacated after Shane Douglas had won it and thrown it down and proclaimed himself to be the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. In 1995, Candido and Sytch arrived in WWE as the Bodydonnas, Skip and Sunny, doing an evil fitness trainers gimmick. Sunny would lead Skip and Zip (Dr. Tom Prichard) to the WWE World Tag Team Titles in 1996 before the team broke up in the fall and Candido returned to ECW. While there, he and Lance Storm would win a Three-Way-Dance for the ECW World Tag Team Titles over the Champs Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon and Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten. After losing the belts to Sabu and Rob Van Dam, Candido and Storm would feud into late 1998 until personal issues led to Candido taking time off. He would have a feud with Taz in 1999 before he and Sytch, who had departed WWE in June 1998, left for the independents. They would spend a few months in WCW, where Candido would win the WCW World Cruiserweight Title in Spring 2000, before leaving. He eventually turned up in TNA in 2005. Sadly, just when it seemed like he finally had his life on the right track, he would suffer injuries to his leg in a cage match at the TNA Lockdown PPV, and while the surgery was successful, a blood clot developed in his leg after he flew to a TNA TV taping post-surgery and he later passed away from acute pneumonia brought on by the surgery on April 28, 2005.


"These are No Gimmick Needed Tropes":

  • Arch-Enemy: (in ECW): The Super Destroyers, Taz, Lance Storm, Rob Van Dam, Sabu; (in SMW): Tim Horner, Bobby Blaze, Cactus Jack; (in WWE): Barry Horowitz, who got a brief Day in the Limelight in Summer 1995 by ending Skip's undefeated streak, the Godwinns, the Smokin Gunns
  • Asshole Victim: Fidel Sierra should have been disqualified at WWC Aniversario 30 after hitting Chris Candido with the Cuban flag but since even the referee could see Candido was wearing brass knuckles when it happened no one cared that a three count was given anyway.
  • Bash Brothers: With Dr. Tom Prichard, Brian Lee, Lance Storm, Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow
  • Battle Couple: Despite not really being a wrestler, WCW still had Tammy Lynn Sytch tag with Candido. This resulted in Candido losing the Cruiserweight Championship to Crowbar and Daffney Unger.
  • Breakup Breakout: From the Suicide Blondes
  • Costume Copycat: Of Terry Funk in WCW.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: He and Shane Douglas kicked Triple Threat prospect Storm out of the group, with Bigelow turning on Taz to rejoin it, because Candido claimed that Storm was trying to impress Tammy. This led to the Dream Partners Match at ECW Living Dangerously 98. The Triple Threat (Douglas/Candido/Bigelow, w/Francine) were cutting promos running down Storm, Taz and Al Snow, in re a clip of Snow buried up to his neck at a beach talking to Head, when Candido momentarily walked off camera and came back ranting into a cell phone saying something about finding a partner, with Chris Benoit (who, in 1995, had been part of the original Triple Threat with Douglas and Dean Malenko) being mentioned in there, and his stablemates and Joey Styles looked both concerned and confused.
  • Expy: Mike Bucci's evil infomercial fitness guru gimmick Simon Dean drew comparisons to the Bodydonnas.
  • Finishing Move: Blonde Bombshell (top rope powerbomb), Superplex, Diving Headbutt.
  • High-School Sweethearts: With Tammy Lynn Sytch.
  • Hot-Blooded: Seriously, go back to any of his promos.
  • Joisey: He uses the Jersey Jam leg drop, he's filmed promos from what was supposedly his backyard, in Jersey, he worked for a lot Southern promotions as is, where the audience was predisposed to dislike New Jersey...
  • Kick the Dog: Towards the end of his Smoky Mountain run he "punished" Boo Bradley for losing to Cactus Jack, the same one Candido himself could not defeat, by killing Bradley's cat with The Jersey Jam.
  • Large Ham: Again, look at his promos.
  • Odd Friendship: With New Jack, of all people. Jack acknowledged it during his online feud with Tammy.
  • Older Hero Versus Younger Villain
    • Vs Terry Funk for the WCW Hardcore title on "Thunder", Candido boasting that he would be the one to finally put Terry Funk out of his misery(he wasn't).
    • The vastly younger villain to Carlos Colon, who was sixty years old when he and Candido feuded over the WWC Television Title.
  • Perfectly Cromulent Word: Bodydonna. No definition seems to exist other than that it was the name of a tag team.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Referred to his lackey turned enemy Boo Bradley as a "retard". Granted, that didn't have nearly as much impact in the 1990s as, say, the 2010s.
  • Pom-Pom Girl: The first gimmick the WWF tried with him was a baby face male cheerleader.
  • Popularity Power: As an example of how the ECW fans did appreciate good wrestling, they would cheer for him even though he was a Heel and aligned with Shane Douglas as part of the Triple Threat.
  • Power Stable:
    • (in ICW/IWCCW): The Heart Throb 4, with "Chippendale" Tom Brandi, Darren Wyse and Flex Lavender
    • The Triple Threat
    • (in WCW): The New Blood
    • (in the LCW promotion in Texas): The International Playaz Club
    • (in TNA): Planet Jarrett
  • Red Baron: "Suicide Blonde," "No Gimmicks Needed"; (in WCW): "Hard Knocks"
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Lance Storm's Blue Oni.
  • Signature Move: New Jersey Jam leg drop
  • So Proud of You: His reaction to the Naturals defeating America's Most Wanted for the NWA World tag team titles during their TNA run, which was the last image of Candido on television.
  • Tag Team:
    • The Suicide Blondes
    • The Bodydonnas
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: After Douglas and Candido kicked Storm out of the Triple Threat, while Candido and Storm were still Tag Team Champions, the storyline was that, as long as they had the belts, they had to cooperate or they'd be fired.
  • Tempting Fate: Was supposed to have faced Storm at ECW's first PPV, ECW Barely Legal, April 13, 1997, but he had suffered a broken arm, leading to Rob Van Dam being plugged into Candido's spot. Before the match, Candido went off on a rant about how he had been on the first ECW show at the ECW Arena, how a year earlier he had been at WrestleMania XII winning the WWF World Tag Team Titles, and how he came back to ECW and they had gone Extreme and were nationwide and on PPV and he was part of the show, "or, so I thought." He then talked about how he wasn't on the poster (which emphasized the Taz vs. Sabu match), saying that he hopes they tear each other part. He then went off on the Sandman, who was in the semi main, facing Terry Funk and Big Stevie Cool (Stevie Richards) in a Three Way Dance where the winner would get to challenge Raven for the ECW World Heavyweight Title in the main event. Candido called out the Sandman, except he had two objections, saying he was "allergic to cigarette smoke," and that the Sandman carries around a Singapore Cane, "Well, Singapore's a big pussy country, if you've got a Jersey cane, why don't you hit me with that?" It's this trope instead of the usual Bullying a Dragon/Too Dumb to Live since, although Sandman was in the building at the time, he did not come out and attack Candido here.
  • Tournament Arc: The Candido Cup in IWA Mid-South
  • Wrestling Doesn't Pay: The Bodydonnas were wrestling fitness instructors.
  • Wrestling Family: His grandfather Chuck "Popeye" Richards and his brother Johnny Candido

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